The smartphone mobile operating systems war: a who's who of the top contenders

The smartphone mobile operating systems war: a who's who of the top contenders

The smartphone mobile operating systems war: a who's who of the top contenders

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Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

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Research In Motion Limited

Mobile phone makers are going head to head in the battle to win consumers with mobile phone operating systems.

The smartphone mobile operating system (OS) market has changed significantly during the past few years with a constant flow of new contenders entering the market. The mainstream emergence of open platform operating systems is starting to shake up the industry.

Some smartphone handset makers have adopted these platforms with open arms while other manufactures are hesitant to leave their phones' operating systems open to the prying hands of outside developers.

"Open platforms have been a hot topic in 2009," explained market researcher Gartner in a November 12 report. "At first they appear to spell an end to market fragmentation, but when manufacturers adopt a standard software platform, they risk losing the ability to differentiate themselves."

"As a result, individual open platforms will fragment as manufacturers strive to compete. Android already demonstrates this trend: individual manufacturers have deployed their own user interfaces such as HTC Sense and some like Motorola's Motoblur, go deep into the part of the operating systems (OS) that manages contact information."

Research In Motion BlackBerryApproximate market share in Q2 2009: 20.9%*
Approximate market share in 2012: 12.5%**
First commercially available smartphone based on OS: BlackBerry 5810 (released in 2002)
Runs on phones made by: Research In Motion
Main application store: BlackBerry App World (launched in 2009)
Number of Apps: 2000+